My Octopus Teacher is, in a sense, the inverse of Grizzly Man, the Werner Herzog documentary about a grizzly-bear enthusiast who gets a bit too close to his subjects, to disastrous results. Here, a diving enthusiast suffering from a midlife crisis, Craig Foster, has repeated encounters with a particular octopus and ends up being saved, rather than mauled, by the creature. (Foster narrates his own journey, and while he too occasionally waxes poetic, it’s nothing like Herzog’s philosophical pontificating.) A filmmaker himself, Foster also provides much of the gorgeous underwater imagery, sparkling sequences of alien-like creatures in their natural environment. (Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed are the credited directors.) You’re guaranteed to come away with new respect for the octopus as a species and astonishment at the intimate connection Foster experiences. After weeks of careful observation and tentative encounters, the octopus eventually seeks Foster out and—there’s really no other word for it—cuddles. All of this lifts Foster out of his midlife malaise, though viewers may begin to wonder if his disruption of the octopus’ natural rhythms puts it at increased risk from the predators who also share this particular stretch of kelp forest. I wish the documentary was more interested in pursuing that line of introspection, but this gets increasingly unlikely as My Octopus Teacher builds toward an emotional climax that’s neither conventional nature doc nor Grizzly Man, but rather something more like Charlotte’s Web.
